Giambattista Piranesi

Elizabeth Ockwell

December 3, 1999 – February 5, 1999

In 1750, Giovanni Battista Piranesi produced a series of copperplate etchings detailing the views and antiquities of Rome. Piranesi’s work fostered the sweep of Neoclassical design across the continent.

Early in the 20th Century, etching was also used as an art form to record the machine-age icons of skyscrapers and automobiles. The precise sculpting, or engraving, of images into a copper printing plate began in Renaissance Germany. Architectural engravings were coveted by 15th Century aristocrats. Then in the 1800s, techniques of shading and tonality on steel plates became so refined that engravings achieved an almost photorealistic quality. To this day, it has never been surpassed.

ArchiTech will present an exhibition and sale of the finest etchings and engravings from the past 250 years. 18th Century etchings of Rome by Piranesi and 19th Century French steel engravings will be featured as well as modern etchings of visionary architecture by Gilbert Gorski and Venetian dreamscapes by Elizabeth Ockwell.